Category Archives: Romans

Assyrians, Chaldeans, Egyptians, Celts, and others: The Cicero brothers on the nature and effectiveness of divination (mid-first century BCE)

Barbarians and Greeks: Dionysios theorizes the blurry lines (late first century BCE)

Barbarians and Greeks: Eratosthenes challenges the dichotomy (third century BCE)

Boiotians: Ephoros on the superiority of Boiotia and on a Phoenician connection (mid-fourth century BCE)

Celtiberians, Iberians, and Lusitanians: Diodoros on their customs and military skill (mid-first century BCE)

Celts: Appian of Alexandria on their character and on ambassadorial relations with Romans (second century CE)

Celts: Polybios on the Celtic encounter with Rome and on his method in dealing with distant peoples (second century BCE)

Cretans, Spartans, Carthaginians, and Romans: Polybios on superior and inferior societal organization (second century BCE)

Eastern and northern peoples: Bardaisan of Edessa’s Book of the Laws of Countries, Pseudo-Clementines, and Origen on astrology and peoples (second-third centuries CE)

Germans: Appian of Alexandria on large, savage and spirited Germans (second century CE)

Greek diasporas: Aristoxenos of Tarentum on barbarizing to Tyrrhenian ways (fourth century BCE)

Iberians: Trogus on their extreme courage (first century BCE)

Italian and Roman diasporas: Inscriptional evidence

Judean diasporas: Josephos’ citation of documents on Asia Minor and Libya under Julius Caesar and Augustus (late first century CE)

Judeans and others: The Gospel of Philip (before the fourth century CE)

Judeans, Syrians, and Egyptians: Epiktetos engages with ethnographic discourses for philosophical aims (mid-first century CE)

Mediterranean peoples: Artemidoros theorizes foreign elements in dreams (second century CE)

Parthians and Scythians: Julius Africanus on barbarian military techniques (early third century CE)

Parthians: Arrian on their Scythian origins (second century CE)

Parthians: Dio Cassius on their empire and military customs (early third century CE)

People on an idyllic island in the Atlantic off Libya: Diodoros on their natural resources and on Carthaginian colonization plans (mid-first century BCE)

Persians: Varro on Pythagoras’ and Numa’s adoption of Persian forms of divination (first century BCE / early fifth century CE)

Phoenician diasporas: Timaios of Tauromenion, Trogus, and Appian on Tyrians, on the founding of Carthage and on child sacrifice (first century BCE)

Phrygians: Diodoros on Battakes the priest of the great Mother visiting Rome (mid-first century BCE)

Romans, Egyptians, Persians, and others: Minucius Felix’s ethnographic defence of the Christian people (early third century CE)

Romans: Ammianus Marcellinus on the danger of decline into uncivilized lifestyles (late fourth century CE)

Romans: Diodoros on Herakles’ journey to Rome before Rome (mid-first century BCE)

Romans: Dionysios on Roman origins, Italic peoples, and legends of Greek and Pelasgian migrations to Italy (late first century BCE)

Romans: Dionysios on the supposed Roman refusal of barbarian and Phrygian customs (late first century BCE)

Romans: Livy, Pliny, Plutarch, and Dio on Roman human sacrifice of Gauls and Greeks (late first century BCE on)

Romans: Rabbis on four successive imperial powers – Babylonians, Medes, Greeks, Romans (fifth century CE and earlier)

Romans: Strabo concludes on their dominance and superiority (early first century CE)

Sikelians, Sikanians, Sardinians and Iolaeians: Diodoros on ancient migrations and local customs on Sicily (mid-first century BCE)

Tyrrhenians: Diodoros on Etruscan inventions, lifestyle, and decline (mid-first century BCE)